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Saturday, May 2, 2009

I guess you can call this an experiment gone wrong in a good way. I remember watching an episode of Unwrapped from Food Network that showcased this place that made peanut butter and jelly pizzas. Totally cool idea. I've been wanting to try it out for quite a while and finally had the time to do it. I wasn't quite feeling well when I decided to make this, so I didn't want to take the effort to make dough from scratch. Luckily, I had a can of Pillsbury classic pizza crust in the fridge.

Pillsbury dough comes like a large rectangular sheet. I had cut it in half and balled up each trying to reshape it in a circular dough shape. I pressed it down stretching it to a fairly decent size and did the usual things with pizza. Placed the toppings and added some cinnamon sugar on the crust to make it like cinnamon sticks and baked for 20 min. I used Jiff Natural Creamy Peanut Butter and Smuckers Strawberry Preserve.

When I opened the oven door, it was no pizza, but a small roundish loaf. The jam had slid down the sides and slightly caramelized on the silpat, so I added a little more on the top after removing it from the baking sheet. The peanut butter was still creamy. The inside was like bread with a hint of a cinnamon crust. This is definitely a dessert piece. Just like the sandwich, but in a different way.

Ball up the dough. You'll want any showing creases to be at the bottom. Press it down into the familiar pizza shape.

Combine the cinnamon and sugar in a small saucer. Heat peanut butter and strawberry preserve, separately, in the microwave for 30-45 seconds to soften. Then spread an even layer of each. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mix around the crust. Place on a baking sheet with a silpat or lightly greased pan and bake for 15-20 min. Add extra preserve on top before serving.

Just curious, what did it look like when you cut it open? Was the PB and J noticeably different.. or did it combine during cooking? I think my kids would love this but only if you could see both ingredients separategg. I think this would make an awesome appetizer.

Alice: The PB&J are separate on top of the bread not inside. I had tried making this a regular pizza. My mistake was trying to reshape the dough, so instead of the dough remaining flat it, puffed up like a loaf. The inside is just bread.

What a good idea! this is so creative and I'm always looking for ways to use pre-made pizza dough - besides pizza! I like almond butter better than peanut butter, so I might try that with a strawberry or raspberry jelly flavor...mm!